Our View: Healy School could be a good home for Animal Wellness and Adoption Center

Tuesday

Apr 15, 2014 at 6:00 PM

With estimates of 100,000 feral cats roaming the streets of Fall River — and abandoned dogs also becoming more of a problem — it's clear that the city's homeless animal problem needs to be addressed. Unfortunately, there are insufficient government resources devoted to get to the heart of the problem.

Herald News Editorial Board

With estimates of 100,000 feral cats roaming the streets of Fall River — and abandoned dogs also becoming more of a problem — it’s clear that the city’s homeless animal problem needs to be addressed. Unfortunately, there are insufficient government resources devoted to get to the heart of the problem.

Despite the efforts of the animal control office to pick up some of the stray animals, along with the existing animal welfare organizations and a legion of cat and dog lovers who take it upon themselves to house or feed — and even spay or neuter — the homeless animals, the numbers seem too daunting to address with the community resources available now.

That’s why a plan from the newly incorporated Fall River Animal Wellness and Adoption Center to purchase the former Harriet T. Healy School building on Hicks Street for an animal shelter and education center holds promise for helping to get some of these animals spayed and neutered on a larger scale to compassionately control the city’s feral animal population.

Currently housed in an in-law apartment behind the home of Joyce Borodemos, one of the center’s founders, the grassroots nonprofit organization nurses injured cats and newly spayed or neutered animals back to health before releasing them back into colonies outdoors to help control the population.

Under the center’s plan for the Healy School presented to the City Council last week, the feral cat program would be expanded and a safe haven and drop-off location for displaced animals would be created.

Meanwhile, staying true to the educational nature of the school building, educational programs would be offered to the public, including training in animal wellness, nutritional health and alternative therapies for animals and rehabilitation and obedience training for abandoned animals. It would also offer a wellness market and a garden where the community can learn about home-prepared pet meals and herbal remedies.

As Borodemos told the council last week, “Healy’s halls can once again house the energy created with teaching and learning.” The center is awaiting the release of the council’s request for proposals for the Healy School before it can apply.

In the meantime, the fledgling organization will continue its fundraising efforts and identifying grant funding streams. Those who wish to support their efforts may go online at gofundme.com and type in Fall River Animal Wellness and Adoption Center, or find a link to donate on their Facebook page of the same name.

This grassroots group’s conceptual plan seems to be an idea with a lot of merit for the council to consider that would maintain an educational component at the Healy School, while compassionately and cooperatively helping to meet a community need that’s crying out for attention.